Home › Forums › Bows and Equipment › Finally back to bow building. (Updated pics)

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    • wTk
      Member
        July 19, 2011 at 9:32 pm
        Post count: 103
        #3694

        Been out with cancer surgery and finally able to do some work on bows. Been slow and hard to twist my wife’s arm to let me in the shop but finally making progress. This is a new short longbow prototype that started as building a set of limbs for Doc Nock’s broken recurve. I’ve copied Doc’s riser and built these limbs as a test for it. I like how it’s turned out so far. It’s 58″ nock to nock and 43# at 28″ draw. Seems to have good manors at the shot. I’ll be trying to get it chrono’d to see how it performs. Should be a good blind hunting bow.
        The limb veneers are ambrosia maple that I tried to stain black that ended up more of a blue/brown.

        The woods are ambrosia maple with bloodwood accents and I-beam as well as phenolic strips to strengthen the riser.. I had planed on staining the riser black but in tests it was more of a gun metal blue so I hit it with a light brown stain. This is after 2 coats of massey finish. I’ve stippled the grip and need to add some more coats of massey before going over it with a flat poly.

        Here’s a profile shot with a 7″ brace height.

        Here’s a shot of the nock.

      • David Petersen
        Member
          July 20, 2011 at 12:00 am
          Post count: 2749
          #22643

          wTk — Well shucks. Very best luck with your continued recovery. My wife is a survivor, 10 years now, with only surgery and no rads or chemo. Sometimes the magic does work and here’s wishing it works for you. I really like the looks of those limbs. Dave

        • wTk
          Member
          Member
            July 23, 2011 at 2:26 am
            Post count: 103
            #26163

            Updated the pictures since I got the finish done.
            I added a bit of brown and black stain to the alcohol I use to thin the 2-part epoxy for the last 2 coats of epoxy finish than put on 2 coats of satin exterior poly. I like how it turned out. I also stippled the grip to cut slippage without covering up the wood grain.
            The woods are ambrosia maple with bloodwood accents and I-beam as well as phenolic strips to strengthen the riser.

            Here’s a profile shot with a 7″ brace height.

            Closeup of the stippling

            Here is the belly side of the riser showing the limb bolts.

            Unstrung profile

            28+” full draw

          • wildschwein
              August 1, 2011 at 1:01 pm
              Post count: 581
              #36955

              Very good work on that bow. In particular I like the stippling in the grip.

            • William Warren
              Member
                August 3, 2011 at 1:43 am
                Post count: 1384
                #38882

                Beautiful work wTk! I like that stipple grip too. I’m also a survivor, since 3/5/01. Lucky all I needed was surgery. Godspeed on your recovery.

                Duncan

              • bruc
                Member
                  August 3, 2011 at 2:42 am
                  Post count: 476
                  #38950

                  Agree with Wildeshein and Duncan ! Beautiful work !
                  Wondering how you do the stipple on the handle:?:
                  Bruce

                • wTk
                  Member
                  Member
                    August 10, 2011 at 12:23 am
                    Post count: 103
                    #47187

                    BRUC wrote: Wondering how you do the stipple on the handle:?: Bruce

                    Bruce I use a burr cutter with my dremel tool. After the first few coats of finish are cured I mark my pattern on the handle. Then I use the burr to outline that pattern and finally do a random cut with the burr. Once it’s finished I go over it lightly with steel wool and then do the final few coats of finish. My hand’s a little shaky with the sickness so not a clean as I like but it sure beats covering the wood with leather for grip.

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